Manga Tendency
by Invincible East
Summary: What would happen if the famous mangaka Kishibe Rohan looked into the past of Joseph Joestar with Heaven's Door? An seemly normal encounter on a peaceful day in Morioh opened the doors to a past Rohan was never aware of...A Jojo's Bizarre Adventure short story for Part 4.
1. Chapter 1

Mangaka Kishibe Rohan is facing a dilemma. It is not the kind of problem that people like him, those with special powers, would have: intertwining the fates of people under similar circumstances together and eventually meet, usually with an initial confrontation with their unique abilities. No, it was a much, much more serious and threatening problem.

"Damn it. I don't know what to draw." Rohan muttered to himself, taking his daily afternoon walk on the Kotodai shopping district. Writer's block, or in his case, _mangaka's_ block. Upon noticing a certain familiar map placed in front of him, Rohan realized just across the street was Reimi Sugimoto's alley. It was only some while ago that him and Koichi stumbled in there, but it felt a such long time to him. At first he didn't think they would actually find the serial killer, but as time when on, reality proved him wrong. Now they managed to track down the murderer's identity, or at least, his former.

Rohan decided to take a break from chasing down Kira's new identity, so he spent the last few days trying to work on the latest chapter of his masterpiece: _Pink Dark Boy._ He stared at the alleyway that is located between the drug store and the grocery store. Sometimes it revealed itself to him and the others, sometimes it didn't, though normal people without the powers of a Stand was never able to see it. Today it allowed to be gazed at.

 _It's going to take some time to find the killer_ , Rohan thought, thinking of Reimi, who wandered the ghostly alleyway with her faithful dog. _B_ _ut I swear I'm going to find him and bring him to justice. I don't know how long it will take. Weeks, months, maybe even years, but so long as I live in this town, I will._

His resolve to find Kira is admirably adamant, true, but lately Rohan can't say the same for drawing. The surge of passion he had found from reading Koichi's memories back then burned itself out, and he's not sure what will happen next in his story. As much as he had tried reality is not giving him an answer. Maybe his reality is trying to tell him he is a Stand user before a mangaka, and he must locate Kira above all else.

"Oh, if it isn't Kishibe Rohan."

A gentle and ragged voice drove him back to the actual reality. Rohan saw an old man who wore a thick brown trench coat, a small pair of spectacles, and a brimmed woolen hat. Because of his old age, he had to use a cane to assist him on his travels. Joseph Joestar, age 79.

"Mr. Joestar." Rohan stated with mild respect. Joseph was old, and being a polite, well mannered citizen of Morioh Rohan felt obliged to show him honor, unlike that shameless Josuke who scolds his own father loudly in public for being senile.

"It's a nice day, isn't it?" the old man said, adjust his spectacles, "How are you doing with your manga?"

"It's progressing well," Rohan said, thinking that his problem wasn't worth for an old man to worry, "I'm finishing the new chapter soon."

"Ah, that is good. I saw some of your volumes from Josuke. Even though I couldn't read it, the art is really good. They are very detailed. Shame about it not being in English."

Rohan nodded. Now that he thinks about it, how come his manga _isn't_ translated in English? Being one of the most spoken languages in the world, he is pretty sure at least someone in the West would find his work appealing. Or was he correct on them having bad tastes, after all?

"The alleyway with the ghost girl is right across the street, right?" Joseph pointed. "I have a few questions about the killer, and I wish to clear something up."

"Yeah, the alley where Reimi resides is right over there. Just keep walking straight and turn right until you see a red mail post and a pile of dog shit that's been stepped on. That's where she usually hangs out."

"Oh, thank you, thank you." The old man gave his thanks and faced the crosswalk, waiting for the signal for him to go. "Sorry that I couldn't be much help in this whole investigation. My Stand used to be able to locate people and read their thoughts but when you get to my age just even summoning it gets tiring."

When the light told him to go, Joseph huddled across the street slowly. Rohan watched him leave. He's heard of his Stand before. Hermit Purple. Is there a story behind his Stand? How did he get it? Was he a natural, or did he get shot by the Arrow as well? What did it looked it? Rohan pondered onto these questions, generated by his sharp mangaka instincts, and did not notice the speeding truck until it was almost too late. The light had already turned red, but Joseph stood frozen in the middle of the crosswalk. For some reason he was deeply absorbed on watching this kid across the street blowing bubbles. Shiny and numerous.

"Oh for the love of-" Rohan saw the truck and immediately sprang into action. "Heaven's Door!" Sketching the air with astonishing speed, Rohan drew an outline of the protagonist of _Pink Dark Boy_ , a small boy with a gray coat and a top hat. The manifestation of his Stand dove right into Joseph, and Rohan quickly wrote the command " _I cannot be harmed_ " into him. The truck, to the passerbys, seemed to have miraculously swerved at the last moment and avoided hitting the old senile man who's stopped in the middle of the road. Rohan let out a sigh of relief. Deep down he does not know what Josuke do when he found out Joseph was hurt on his watch.

"Hey, are you all right?" Rohan walked up to Joseph, whose body for the moment was still a book. "Here, let me escort you acros-"

For a moment, just for a moment, he saw something bizarre. It was one sentence in his memory, but he saw it.

" _Fought against the evil vampire DIO, mortal enemy of the Joestar bloodline, with Jotaro and others at Egypt, 1989._ "

"What the-What is this?" Rohan stammered, looking at outrageous line in disbelief. He was about to look deeper into Joseph's memory when he realized the latter was looking intently at him.

"Rohan? What did you do to my body?"

Rohan gulped. He decided to write " _I will forget what just happened_ " into him.

Joseph waved goodbye as he entered the ghostly alley, leaving the mangaka watching him until he disappeared around the corner. He ignored everyone else's incredulous stares at him looking at nothing in the middle of the road. Rohan couldn't help but feel he had witnessed a glimpse of something powerful, with that just one sentence from Joseph's memory. Even if he is senile, Heaven's Door captures the perfect recordings of his life with pin-point accuracy from the moment he could remember.

"It looks like the past has the answers I'm looking for." He ran his hand over his forehead and stared upwards in the setting sun. He was going to visit Reimi, but now he wants to head home.


	2. Chapter 2

It had been days since Rohan had accidentally read a piece of Joseph's unspoken past. Among the various other life experiences in the flap, his eyes chose to read that particular sentence.

" _Fought against the evil vampire DIO, mortal enemy of the Joestar bloodline, with Jotaro and others at Egypt, 1989."_

He could not get it out of his mind. For days his sleep had been restless, thinking and wondering about that line in Joseph's memory. What could it mean? He fought against this...vampire, with Jotaro? Rohan heard the name DIO mentioned several times before, but he never really thought much about it. Was it some sort of vague message riddled with secrets? No, Heaven's Door only displays the purest facts in simplistic perfection.

 _So vampires are real,_ Rohan thought, turning over to his side on his bed. _Well, if Stands are real, what makes vampires not? Hell, Reimu Sugimoto and the alleyway proved that ghosts exist a long time ago._

Rohan made up his mind. That one sentence alone already created more than ten chapters for _Pink Dark Boy_. An evil, immortal vampire that haunts the family line of the protagonist...he wasn't this excited on drawing manga ever since he read Koichi. If he wish to keep this up, Rohan is going to look into more of Joseph's past. Jotaro too, if needed, but Star Platinum is something he doesn't yet want to mess with.

"Mr. Joestar," Rohan approached the elderly man the next day, who was found sitting alone in a park. "Good day."

Joseph did not seem to see him. He clutched his cane, staring intently at a bunch of kids playing.

Rohan sighed. He quickly made a silent apologize on behalf of intruding the memories that the old man may not what others to know.

"Heaven's Door."

And then he wrote " _I will sleep until Kishibe Rohan is done looking through my memories, then I'll forget what happened._ " in him. He's only going to take a few minutes on reading through his memories. Kidnapping Koichi last time made Josuke come after him, so this time all he will do is to write down anything intriguing into the notepad he brought along. It was very tempting on reading more about the vampire, but Rohan decided it would be better to start from his youth and see what kind of man Joseph Joestar was.

"Let's see...one of his earliest memories...a bunch of terrorists hijacked the plane of a rich businessman and he happened to be on it. He used 'hamon' to save themselves, causing the plane to crash...Hm. What is this 'hamon'?" And then Rohan looked further into the vocabulary hamon, acting like a glossary of terms. He was amazed to find it to be an ancient form of martial arts, dedicated on destroying foul beings with the energy of the sun. It's definitely going to be a technique featured in Pink Dark Boy...

* * *

Mangaka Kishibe Rohan is exasperated. It's way past the deadline he set for himself, but he couldn't stop from flipping through Joseph's memories. His life experiences were almost like a fantastic novel. He just couldn't stop himself from reading. Defeated a former hamon master who was his grandfather's ally and turned himself into a vampire...Infiltrated a German science facility in Mexico and witnessed the awakening of an ancient pillar being...and managed to defeat it...Discovered three more pillar beings who were much more powerful than Santana, the first one, and they forced a challenge onto him within a month or else the ring implanted in his heart would dissolve and poison him...Trained harshly by his instructor, Lisa Lisa, who turned out to be his own mother who believed to be long dead, alongside with his partner and best friend, Caesar Anthonio Zeppeli, who was the grandson of the hamon master that taught Joseph's own grandfather...

It's been hours, and the sun is beginning to set. Joseph remained unconscious on Rohan's lap, peacefully dreaming. Rohan, on the other hand, could not keep himself from crying. Joseph Joestar's life was a hard one, full of trouble and hardships, but it was a heroic one as well. He was an unsung hero, who had saved the Earth from Ultimate Kars, as well as assisted Jotaro's crew on defeating DIO.

"It's beautiful," Rohan said, his tears glimmering from the setting sun. It was the death of Joseph's friend, Caesar, that got him the most. "Joseph Joestar's life. It's so sad, so tragic, the Joestar bloodline, and yet these brave men pushed on against all the odds and eventually achieved an undeniable victory."

In the end Rohan wrote down nothing. Not a sentence of Joseph's past. When the old man woke up, he was confused. Rohan told him he was sleeping on the bench, and Josuke and the others were looking for him. He watched him leave with a scurrying hurry. What he had just seen today is something he will not pass onto others. Joseph wouldn't want it anyway. Not even Jotaro or his wife, Suzi Q, knew much about his battle with the pillar men. Since then Rohan long abandoned the idea of incorporating aspects of his past in _Pink Dark Boy_ entirely. It felt...wrong, to rudely display his life like that in a manga.

One could say Kishibe Rohan left empty-handed, with nothing to show for his manga. He spent an entire day staring at an old, senile man. It's a day of his life he's never going to get back, right?

If you would tell that to Rohan, he would tell you to watch your damn mouth and cast Heaven's Door on you. Joseph, from that day forth, became a subject of his deepest respect. Jotaro too, and while he wouldn't admit it out loud, his admiration for the struggles of the Joestar family managed to seep onto Josuke as well. When he returned to his house, he discarded the script that he drew from Joseph's memory about DIO into the trash. True, if he had used his past in his manga, it might have become even more engaging and famous than it already was. It would become an international hit, and would sell like crazy. He might even win an award or two. But he chose not to. Like he told Koichi and Hazamada the other day, Kishibe Rohan does not draw for fame or money. He draws so that people would read his work, his own story, not one that was shamelessly based off from the black and white past of some old forgetful British man who's fingered a baby.


	3. Epilogue

Kishibe Rohan is sitting in an impossible room carved into the side of the Twin Forests Tunnel. In front of him, Josuke is yelling at him, demanding to know what is going on and what is this room. Behind him, a dark blue humanoid Stand hid in his back, urging him to lure in Josuke in exchange for his life energy.

"I refuse." Rohan replied.

"What?!"

"The one thing I, Kishibe Rohan like more than anything else is find people who think they're hot shit and saying _no_ to their faces." He turned to Josuke, unable to move. "Get out of here, Josuke! If you enter the room, you've already lost! You'll die!"

"Damn you!" The Stand Highway Star cursed at him, but despite Rohan's genuine warnings, Josuke stepped into the room anyways.

"Wh-What the hell do you think you are doing?" Ever since Josuke burned down his house, Rohan was at odds with him. He was sure that he was cheating in their game of dice. "I tried to warn you...but you never listen to anything I say! That's why I hate you so much!"

But it was too late. Josuke already stepped into the room. Highway Star already got his scent. Numerous pairs of flat, dark blue feet piled onto him, seeking to nourish themselves with his life energy.

Rohan stopped. It's too late. Josuke's caught. Both of them are going to die...

...but he remembered the time when he read Joseph's Joestar's past, and the history of their family bloodline. Their accomplishments and their bravery, it cannot stop here simply on behalf of the foolishness of their youngest member.

 _You, Josuke! You cannot die here as a part of the Joestar family!_

"Heaven's Door!" With his last bit of strength, Rohan tore open a small flap on Josuke's face. He wrote the command "I'll fly backwards at 70 KM!", and instantly Josuke sailed out of the room, crashing into his broken bike. But it's all right. He had saved him from Highway Star. He had no regrets on dying here now.

Well, except maybe that he should have finished something for Pink Dark Boy's deadline first. His readers kept nagging him in fanmails about his prolonged hiatus.


End file.
